University tuition fees could rise to £10k

Student tuition fees could rise beyond £10,000 a year under a radical shake-up of university funding.

Steep learning curve: Students may have to pay higher contributions.

Plans being considered by government adviser Lord Browne would allow universities to charge even more if they agree to pay a proportion of the extra cash into a central fund to help poorer students.

Ministers would risk middle-class fury by backing a big rise in tuition fees, which are likely to be rebranded 'graduate contributions'.

They are understood to favour a lower limit, perhaps £7,000 a year.

Lord Browne will unveil his blueprint for a new system of university funding next week. He is expected to recommend that middle-class students lose some of their entitlements to grants and cheap loans to ensure assistance is concentrated on the poorest.

Meanwhile well-paid graduates could pay back significantly more than the cost of their degree to subsidise those who earn less during their careers.

A study out today warns that tuition fees are likely to rise fivefold to £16,450 a year if the current cap of £3,290 is lifted and a free market in higher education is ushered in. Debts for middle-class students on three-year degrees, including living costs, could reach £80,000.

Research commissioned by the Sutton Trust education charity found that removing the fees limit would be a 'big risk' to social mobility. The Tories and Lib Dems are already working towards a deal over tuition fees in an attempt to head off splits over a highly toxic issue for the new coalition.

While the Tories went into the election refusing to rule out a rise in fees, the Lib Dems committed themselves to axing the charges altogether. Almost all sitting Lib Dem MPs, including Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, signed a pre-election pledge to vote against any rise in fees.

Mr Cable has insisted reforms must be 'progressive', with the highest-earning graduates facing the biggest repayments.

A surcharge on rich graduates could form part of a compromise deal aimed at allowing the Lib Dems to save face.

The Daily Mail has revealed how a new finance regime could be introduced for new students as early as 2012.

The extra revenue would be used to offset cuts of up to 40% to university budgets, expected to be outlined in this month's comprehensive spending review.

Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said the average student debt is already is more than £25,000.

And the British Medical Association warned that the debt of medical students, whose degree courses typically last five or six years, could reach £100,000 if annual fees are raised to £10,000.